Review Roundup: 24 Live Another Day Episode 7

Here’s a comprehensive collection of reviews and recaps for 24: Live Another Day Episode 7.

The A.V. Club (B+): “The point is that it’s absurd in a really thrilling and sort of delightful way, and it makes for another fun episode climax, as Jack barrels down London streets, bashing through traffic, and stealing not one but two different cars in his efforts to make their escape. (The best car theft is when he straight up knocks a guy out without any apology, warning, or explanation. It’s not the most noble or law-abiding approach, but the raw practicality of it is Bauer to the core.)”

IGN (8.7/10): “This season has found 24 changing things up from week to week and tonight’s episode was no exception. The previous hour was a tense, compact one with Jack going undercover and culminating in a shootout at the bad guys’ hideout. This week finds Jack and Kate careening around London in a desperate attempt to outrace freakin’ drones and even CIA computer geek Jordan gets to stretch his legs… for a bit. More than halfway through the season, each week still feels fresh because of the constantly changing locales.”

HitFix: “William Devane continues to be terrific, even if all the material surrounding Heller (the Alzheimer’s, Mark forging his signature on the rendition order) remains sketchy.”

Screen Crush: “Are you ready for the wackiest hour of ‘24: Live Another Day‘ yet? This episode has it all: car chases, terrorist attacks, gun fights, torture, mothers killing children, nieces wishing aunts dead, computer technicians facing murder and Presidents Skyping with known terrorists.”

Pop-Break: “Sometimes you have to accept a show for what it is. After hoping, beyond hope, that 24: Live Another Day would evolve into an intelligent Bourne Idenity-esque cat-and-mouse political thriller, we realized that this is not and will not be the case. The series has devolved into a run-and-gun series that only works when its main character is onscreen and crumbles into a wasteland of unnecessary and overly complicated subplots when he’s off camera.”

Boston.com: “Morgan and Jack manage to clear most of the hospital before the missile hits, exploding in a shower of debris and crappy CGI.”

Paste Magazine: “Last night, on 24: Live Another Day, Jack Bauer set the standard for all future TV car chases. It was a move so ridiculous that even Jack’s escape from the nuke-toting plane in Season Two seems reasonable in comparison. It’s not 24 unless our hero/fugitive/daredevil pulled at least one impossible feat.”

TV.com: “Navarro could’ve easily been a sniveling villain, but Live Another Day and Benjamin Bratt have done a nice job of adding some extra shading to the character. Of course, Jordan survived his execution, so there’s still time for a full-blown heel-turn from Navarro as early as next week.”

FOX News: “In perhaps the season’s most impressive action sequence yet, Margot and her son use the drone technology to target Jack’s vehicle as he drives through the streets of London. She fires missile after missile, each of which Jack narrowly dodges. While bombs drop all around them, Jack plows through construction sites and knocks out anyone who gets in his way. He finally manages to throw Margot off their scent by using an empty car as a decoy.”

Zap2It: “Now Jordan has to know something is up, but will he be able to do anything about it? That’s just one of the big questions leading into next week’s episode. What is Heller’s plan, if any? If Simone survives her injuries, does she actually know enough to help? With seven episodes down and only five left, “24: Live Another Day” is kicking into high gear and is only going to get crazier from here.”

Schmoes Know: “Hot dog I cannot express how awesome this show is! I really dug this episode. It had a great variety of everything one needs from a 24 episode. It had action, intensity, great writing and terrific acting. I wasn’t a huge fan of last weeks episode, though I still liked it, but this episode was one of the bests!”

NY Daily News: “The show is firing on all cylinders now — well, all but every single scene that Tate Donovan’s Chief of Staff Mark Boudreau chews his way through. It’s not meant as any disrespect to a solid actor, but the character’s arc — which now ties him to the Russians over a forged presidential signature done in haste to screw over Jack — is like a speed-bump on an otherwise briskly moving show.”

CNS News: “We can now say with certainty that 24 has hit its stride for this limited season. The seventh episode featured everything you expect from 24: Intrigue and action, loyalties questioned and unthinkable consequences.”

TV Equals: “Another person doing really good work recently is William Devane as President Heller. He’s been absolutely terrific. He carries the correct amount of gravitas in any given scene, and his power play starting with al-Harazi was really cool looking.”

She Knows: “I don’t know why, but somehow I keep expecting that this show will give us an episode where the audience can take a few relaxing breaths. You’d think I would know by now that that is not what you get out of 24: Live Another Day.”

TV Fanatic: “I was a little surprised that Simone’s brother was so willing to pull the trigger but then again, I guess I shouldn’t have been. His mother would have just as easily but a bullet in his head if he had refused.”

Starpulse: “After last week’s partly shocking, partly cliched installment of 24: Live Another Day, it was up to the show to either maintain its momentum or keep going back down the road on which we’ve been before. With an episode that involves blowing up a hospital and some serious family issues, it definitely leans toward the former.”

Vulture: “The twist of having Jack trying to outrun a drone is a good one, but the imagery is not as captivating as we imagine it should be.”

Bloomberg View: “Finally. Not until after 5 o’clock in the afternoon — that is, more than half the season of “24: Live Another Day” — did Jack Bauer have the chance to torture anybody.”

Buddy TV: “In previous seasons of 24, I usually forgave terrible middle episodes because by the time we were four or five episodes away from the finale, it picked up the pace. Now that we’re in a much, much shorter season, we shouldn’t have to get terrible middle episodes, right Wrong. And that’s kind of what we got tonight as we arrive at the mid-point of this shortened “season.””

We Got This Covered: “24 is not a show that anyone will ever hold up as an example of realism in storytelling, although it helps that the series is filmed in a gritty, close-up, handheld style that recalls realist action films, like the ones from director Paul Greengrass. Even so, this is a deliciously silly hour of the thriller, due to a riveting (and ridiculous) car chase.”

Den of Geek: “Halfway through this shortened day, I’m finding 24: Live Another Day unintentionally humorous because that’s the only way I’m able to push through. Wiser men than me have said to not take yourself so seriously. Do even less when watching 24 because buying into everything it throws our way is maddening. Yet I’m still here, watching, reviewing, and hanging on to Jack’s every word. The show might have died years ago, but the character lives on.”

Paul Levinson’s Infinite Regress: “Another powerhouse episode of 24 tonight – 9.7 – featuring a wild car chase, with Jack behind the fleeing wheel, that would have made James Bond proud.”

High-Def Digest: “Last week, I praised ’24′ for providing us with one of the most entertaining episodes viewers had seen in this new season. Well, I should have waited to do that, as this week’s episode was not only more exciting, it’s arguably one of the most action-packed entries ’24′ has had during its entire nine-season run.”

Crave Online: “Heller really is slipping if he thought this was a good idea. The last time that Heller was taken hostage by terrorists, he ended up wearing pajamas while appearing in a terror propaganda video. But no one ever really learns from their past on “24.””

All That’s Epic: “So let’s talk about the other big reveal of this episode. Adrian Cross. I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I’m not pleased. Adrian was already not a likeable character who butted heads with Jack and screwed him over outside the American Embassy. This reveal of him (we) being behind the leaking of US secrets to the Chinese and Steve Navarro framing Adam Morgan for it is not a big surprise. We already knew he was a hacktivist. Also it feels like a recapitulation of 24’s old one sided politics that I was talking about in reviews of earlier episodes.”

Better With Popcorn: “While the first half the episode was kind of forgettable, the great chase sequence and the surprising decision from Heller really proved that 24: Live Another Day can continue to set itself apart and overcome the stigma that came with 200 previous episodes of the show. But seriously, that chase scene was incredible and yet another instant classic moment for this spectacular season.”

The Jack Sack: “I loved Jack in this episode. Kate was great too, slinging The Jack Sack™ over her shoulder, consoling the Orphan and being generally competent. The messy subplots don’t interest me as much- Mr. Julia Roberts and the Russian angle both feel too formulaic.”

Bitch Stole My Remote: “I’m also glad that President Heller (William Devane) gets to show his badass side to Prime Minister Davies (Stephen Fry). The President later tells Audrey (Kim Raver) and Boudreau (Tate Donovan) that he handled his meeting with the PM poorly, but I thought it was great. He calls the PM out on not trusting him and blowing the operation, and he is able to (presumably) get the PM’s unwavering support for the remainder of the crisis.”

TVLine: “Anyone else finding the Prime Minister and POTUS, and activity in general amidst their staffs, to be too quiet in the lead-up to an imminent terror attack?”

Digital Spy: “This episode felt like classic 24 fare, with Jack returning to a hospital to interrogate an injured subject, rubbish security all round, and more plot twists. Kiefer Sutherland continues being kick-ass as ever, but there was a distinct lack of Chloe this week, and where has Erik gone?”

Geek Binge: “I actually don’t have a lot to say in regards to Jack’s car versus drone chase across London, other than it was friggen cool, not overly drawn out, and relatively well plotted. What I liked about this chase was that it addressed something I often wonder in regards to car chases: What happens if you get stuck in traffic.”

Polar Bears Watch TV: “This episode has Jack Bauer driving like a badass through the streets of London, punching random dudes on the street, stealing cars and stealing from homeless people, and narrowly avoiding a bunch of huge explosions while transporting the dying daughter of a terrorist–who, by the way, wants to kill her daughter–away from a hospital that was just hit by a drone strike. A+”

The Guardian: “Special praise for whoever designed the aftermath of the explosion, by the way. People on fire. Severed limbs. Lots of blood. It was genuinely quite distressing.”

Liberty Voice: “More words of praise should be heaped upon Devane as the American president who is fighting off either dementia or Alzheimer’s. The man has played a lot of leaders in his career and his acting chops are still more than impressive. In 24 he continues his believable portrayal of high level politicians.”

Other Recaps

Note: these are mostly just straight-up recaps with little or no critical analysis.

• Mania
• The Escapist
• Hollywood Life
• The Baltimore Sun
• New York Observer
• Chron

Video Reviews and recaps

Post Show Recaps:

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